Well it's my very little wonder and it's one that I will keep

[lesstravelled]

Something was going on.

Something was always going on. The world was a big and bustling place full of the small evils people committed against each other. Road enjoyed that about life. Anywhere you went you'd find people being people everywhere, and it never mattered if those people were tall or short or old or young or lizards or dogs or boring old humes. People transcended the species barrier, and people were awful. Terrible.

Fun.

Sometimes there were the larger evils people committed against each other too, and Road was part of more than one of those. They were Noah. Clandestine, dangerous, remorseless. They had their spoons in more than one pot of evil and gave them a stir occasionally to make sure the nastiness didn't just sink to the bottom and stay there.

They didn't concern themselves with the lowerworld much. Road, and Tyki, and the others, had been busily stirring another pot on Jylland, their usual playground, when the summons had come from Khamja on the lowerworld. They'd had some work from them, in the past, but their relationship with Khamja was normally distant. The Earl had maintained the connection, because connections were good, and maybe once they were done playing on Jylland it'd be fun to find a new place to play, but when the summons had come, he hadn't been able to attend himself.

He'd sent Road in his stead, and Tyki to go with her. It was easier to be underestimated when you dressed cute and sounded cute and looked cute, and had someone that definitely looked like an adult with you.

Something was going on. Khamja were playing their cards close to their chest, but they'd requested the presence of every single member, both shadow and open, for an important meeting.

Road didn't try to surmise what exactly it was that was going on. It wouldn't involve them, at any rate, at least not yet, but there was always the opportunity for new opoortunities. New people, new places, new things to learn and use.

Their directions to the Desert Palace hadn't been the best. The place was hidden, and marking it on maps would be a good way of making it no longer hidden. Not that maps were any help when you were approaching from the other side.

Road gave their transport an affectionate stroke along its bony mask. The journey from Niflheim, where they'd been, to Rabanastre, would have been a boringly long walk if they hadn't hitched a ride. Fortunately, there wasn't a Hollow in existence that would deny a Noah asking a favour.

"Do you think The Earl will be upset if we set off their alarms?" she asked, tilting back from her perch on the Hollow's head to look at Tyki upside down. Her legs dangled down, her feet brushing dangerously close to its teeth, but it wouldn't bite. It wouldn't dare.

The route had been surprisingly well trodden for something in the depths like this. Hollows came this way regularly, but if you were used to Hollows you could tell where they veered away from a spot. They gave population centres a wide berth, or the smart ones did, so you found the paths they took might open out within sight of one, but almost never in one. Not unless they were told to.

The same thing happened here. There were probably wards, or some kind of defense mechanism to keep even the Hollows out of an area that would, normally, be one of their gathering places. Some old, forgotten, sunken ruin beneath the sands, deep in the heart of the Zertinan Caverns would be teeming with Hollows if it wasn't for the fact it wasn't forgotten, or abandoned.

The Hollows stayed away. Whatever was there was too powerful for them to think it worth taking on.

They'd come out of the Garganta into the Caverns, and then pressed on, but now might be a good time to let the Hollow leave. Not that Road was against making an entrance, but it would spoil the fun if everyone knew what they were before they knew what everyone else was.

Comments

[declaregamuza]

Nel scowled. "Yes," she said, "well Szayel learned why we don't put hands in other people's mouths, didn't he?"

She sighed, and then looked at Lumi. "I'm sorry about her," she said, in a tone that suggested Lilinette was going to learn how sorry later, once the audience was gone.

She was getting dragged to Halibel, for a start.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi gave the smallest fraction of a shrug at Nel's apology. It wasn't her place to apologise for the girl, but it wasn't as though information like this wouldn't get around once people started arriving anyway. It wouldn't be too long before the visiting members became very aware that they were Ryoka, he expected.

With a small sigh, he looked back at Road.

"I'm a Berserker," he said, by way of explanation. "Being considered unstable is a hazard of the class."

It was as good a reason as any. Berserker was in his Class roster and he wasn't afraid to use it. It was freeing, all things considered, like flicking a switch that removed inhibitions. It hadn't been the reason why he'd bitten Szayel, but that was merely a detail.

"Besides," he added, sipping his coffee again. "If you'd ever had to suffer the man in question, you'd want to bite him as well."

The smirk he wore then gave a little weight to Lilinette's earlier suggestion.

[hagsfiend]

Kreeth listened to the conversation with mild interest. A Berserker, was he? That was fascinating. He didn't look the type. In her admittedly limited experience, they tended to be gigantic muscle-bound idiots who liked to throw their weight around.

This man wasn't that. He was probably a little over six feet tall, slender and the long hair, tied back as it was, gave the impression he was effeminate, even if when you looked properly at his face, he wasn't the wrong side of the line. It was hard to imagine him being vicious and physical in battle. He looked like a mage, even if he didn't feel like one. He didn't feel like anything.

[lesstravelled]

Road gave Lumi a once over. He didn't look like a berserker, but the best ones didn't. It was strange to think that someone with such precision control over their reiatsu wouldn't be primarily a mage, though. It almost seemed like a waste of his talents.

But then, just because he was a berserker didn't mean he wasn't other things, too.

"He sounds like fun," she said. Someone who put his fingers in other people's mouths? Oh, she was sure she or Tyki could have some fun with him.

"I still don't think you're a psychopath," she added, glancing at Tyki. Lumi was one to take note of, though. All that strength, and he was a berserker? He was interesting.

[lilinette]

Lilinette screwed her nose up. "Most people just punch him," she pointed out.

It wasn't that she felt bound to defend Szayel. Szayel knew exactly what he was doing when he was invading privacy and trying to get samples from the Ryoka. He might want samples from the weird mistants too, Lilinette never paid much attention. As far as she could tell, Szayel wanted samples from everybody.

[thesilentstorm]

"Good," Lumi said, giving another ghost of a shrug.

He was rather too calm to be a psychopath in most instances. It was an insult, really, but one that served his and Marluxia's projected impression well enough. Marluxia got to be the charismatic brains of the pair, Lumi the vicious attack dog. It wasn't entirely wrong, except that Marluxia could more than hold his own in battle and Lumi was calmly logical.

"I don't think you're really Szayel's type," he said, addressing Road. Tyki was rather more likely to catch that depraved degenerate's interest.

[intangibleman]

Tyki looked back at Road, half amused.

If anybody knew a psychopath at a glance it was Road. She liked to analyse people, usually to find their buttons or pick at their loose threads. If she didn't think this man was one, he probably wasn't. It was also worth considering the mouth that the information had come out of, however. The little girl wasn't exactly likely to be a font of honesty, even if she seemed happy to spill as much information as she felt necessary to annoy Nel.

He believed Road. After all, with that sort of thing... it takes one to know one.

[lesstravelled]

Road gave an interest little hum. Not Szayel's type? Road didn't think she was anyone's type, certainly not once they found out who she was, but the way Lumi said it, well....

"That's a pity," she said. "He sounds like he'd be fun to play with." Fun for someone, anyway. Fun for her, at least, and maybe for Tyki too if he had a type and it was Lumi. It depended on whether his type was tall men, or the stoic pet with a nasty bite.

Tyki could do everything but the stoic part.

"Who is he?" She had a name, and apparently people punched him a lot. There were rules against harming someone's underlings, rules which had been stressed and re-stressed in the Earl's usual kindly, playful manner, but at the end of it, upsetting people here wasn't going to benefit the Earl.

So who got punched a lot, but didn't take recourse? Did someone just not worry overmuch about their underlings, or was it another new member no one cared about?

[declaregamuza]

"He's our medic," Nel answered. Saying he was Aizen's minion might not help Szayel's longevity at the moment, so she didn't elaborate on that part. "Right now he's out of the Palace."

Nel really, really hoped he wouldn't be back in a hurry either. Yylfordt and Grimmjow could take their sweet time getting back, for her.

At least Szayel was a safe subject, and one that drifted away from whether or not Lumi was a psychopath. She really would need to have words with Lilinette later.